The origins of a principled idea

The principles were “conceived” in August 1979, “born” in June 1983 and “christened” in November 1984.
The Irish National Caucus opened its Capitol Hill office in 1978 and one of our first declared objectives was to “stop United States dollars subsidizing anti-Catholic discrimination in Northern Ireland.”
In July, 1979, Congressman Ben Gilman, a New York Republican, a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and the Subcommittee on International Economic Policy and Trade, commissioned the Irish National Caucus to conduct an investigation of those U.S. companies doing business in Northern Ireland.
We traveled to Ireland at the end of July, 1979. Our visit received heavy press coverage and the reaction of the usual suspects was, “why don’t they mind their own business?” Ironic indeed as our point was that American dollars was American business.
But we also had another mission of equal importance to the genesis of the MacBride Principles: to establish in Dublin the Irish National Caucus Liaison Group to be chaired by Sean MacBride.
It should be apparent that in these two Caucus initiatives – investigation of U.S. companies in Northern Ireland and Sean MacBride becoming chairman of our liaison group in Ireland – were sown the seeds of the MacBride Principles. Hence, the MacBride Principles were indeed conceived in 1979 even if they were not apparent.
We next planned to have our guiding principle, that “United States dollars should not subsidize anti-Catholic discrimination in Northern Ireland,” enshrined into law.
In 1983, we succeeded in having a bill introduced into the house of Representatives, HR 3465. It was headlined “Requiring United States persons who conduct business or control enterprises in Northern Ireland to comply with certain fair employment principles.”
It was modeled on the Sullivan Principles for South Africa and we made it known as the “Ottinger Bill” after its chief sponsor, Congressman Dick Ottinger, a New York Democrat.
To promote the Ottinger Bill, the Caucus, in August 1983, sponsored a visit to Northern Ireland by Congressman Ottinger. We were accompanied by Bob Blancato, who represented our key ally, the redoubtable Congressman Mario Biaggi, chairman of the Ad Hoc Congressional Committee for Irish Affairs, which the Caucus had initiated in 1977. Again, the usual suspects roared, telling Ottinger and myself to mind our own business.
Although the bill did not pass, it was of singular importance because it perfectly framed our issue, and contained in essence the principles we would later call the MacBride Principles. So, the MacBride Principles were born in 1983.
The Ottinger visit to Northern Ireland served as a watershed in our campaign. Soon, numerous state and city officials contacted us to join our campaign, most notably New York City Comptroller Harrison J. Goldin and Council Member Sal Albanese, who would introduce the first MacBride law into the New York City Council.
The Caucus saw the need not only to involve United States legislators, but also institutional investors in our campaign. As New York City Comptroller, Goldin was one of the custodians of millions of dollars of New York City funds invested in a number of United States companies doing business in Northern Ireland.
We eagerly welcomed him to the campaign. We worked with his office on issuing a new set of principles, which like the Ottinger Bill , were also based on The Sullivan Principles. On October 18, 1984, I formally wrote to Sean MacBride proposing and enclosing the principles, and asking his permission to name them after him.
In November, 1984, the Irish National Caucus announced the launching of the “MacBride Principles.” Thus the principles were “christened.”
The Irish Echo captured the historic moment with the headline: “Caucus Proposes New Initiative to Stop Discrimination in Northern Ireland.” This was in the November 10, 1984 issue.
The Sunday Tribune in Dublin had reported on November 4: “The nine-point employment code, which was drawn up by the Washington based Irish National Caucus is sponsored by Sean MacBride S.C., those letters being the indication that MacBride was a barrister with the rank of Senior Counsel in the Irish courts system.
That was the very first occasion that MacBride Principles were mentioned by name in the Irish or American media.
Comptroller Goldin went on to provide magnificent support and economic muscle for the MacBride Principles until he left office in 1989. His successors, Liz Holtzman (1990-1993) and Alan Hevesi (1994-2001) and of course current Comptroller William Thompson, continued to provide indispensable support for the MacBride Principles.
My dear friend, Congressman Ben Gilman, chairman of the House International Relations Committee, championed our campaign in the Congress over the years and the MacBride Principles became U.S. law in 1998.
Therefore, I am sure WB Yeats would understand if I end my “Ode to Jewish-American Politicians” by paraphrasing his famous poem, “Easter, 1916” with, “I write it out in a verse, Gilman, Ottinger, Goldin, Holtzman and Hevesi, Now and in time to be, Wherever green is worn, Are changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.”

Fr. McManus is the founder and president of the Washington, D.C.-based Irish National Caucus.